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© 2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved
Confidential
vSphere 4.1: Delta to 4.0Tech Sharing for Partners
Iwan ‘e1’ Rahabok, Senior Systems [email protected] | virtual-red-dot.blogspot.com | tinyurl.com/SGP-User-Group | facebook.com/e1ang
August 2010
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Audience Assumption
This is a level 200 - 300 presentation.
It assumes:• Good understanding of vCenter 4, ESX 4, ESXi 4.
Preferably hands-on We will only cover the delta between 4.1 and 4.0
• Overview understanding of related products like VUM, Data Recovery, SRM, View, Nexus, Chargeback, CapacityIQ, vShieldZones, etc• Good understanding of related storage, server, network technology
Target audience• VMware Specialist: SE + Delivery from partners
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Agenda
New features• Server• Storage• Network• Management
Upgrade
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4.1 New Feature (over 4.0, not 3.5): Server
Features Design Cost Scalability Performance Availability Security Manageability
ESXi: scripted install ESXi: SAN Boot Memory compression Serial Port Concentrator USB Device MS Cluster support HA Health Check HA: more VM per cluster FT enhancements DRS/HA/FT integration FT: enhanced logging
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4.1 New Feature (over 4.0, not 3.5): Server
Features Design Cost Scalability Performance Availability Security Manageability
vMotion enhancements Power Management & Charts
More VM per host?
Reduced RAM overhead Host Affinity Rules AD integration Multi-core VM Local/Remote Console Total Lockdown Mode VMware Tools scripting
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4.1 New Feature (over 4.0, not 3.5): Storage
Features Design Cost Scalability Performance Availability Security Manageability
API for Array Integration
vscsiStats in ESXi
Storage I/O Control
iSCSI Hardware Offload
VMware Data Recovery
VADP enhancements
Boot from iSCSI Software
Pluggable Storage Arch
VMFS enhancements
Storage statistics
Paravirtualised SCSI
Improved performance
8 GB FC support
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4.1 New Feature (over 4.0, not 3.5): Network
Features Design Cost Scalability Performance Availability Security Manageability
Network I/O Control
IPv6 Enhancements
Load-based Teaming
vNIC enhancements
Nexus 1000V v2.0
Distributed Switch
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4.1 New Feature: Management
Component New Features
vMA AD authentication
Host Profiles Cisco, AD, Tech Support Mode
vCLI & PowerShell A set of new vCLI commands
vCO 64 bit. Improved performance.
VMware Update Manager3rd party patching, provisioning, upgrading. Push update on critical notifications
Licence Reporting Manager
vCenterFaster performance, 64 bit, more VM per host, more hosts per vCenter, bigger vCenter,
vCenter LinkedMode 3x more VM
Site Recovery Manager 4.1Per-VM pricing. IP customization for Windows 7 and Win08 R2. Faster recovery time for iSCSI . 64-bit only. vDS support.
Error Reporting Submit error to VMware.com
Partner plug-in Updated vCenter plug-ins from partners (Server, Storage, etc)
Converter Convert to thin while converting. Hyper-V import
Performance Charts New charts, new counters, especially Storage related
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Builds:• ESX build 260247• VC build 258902
Some stats:• 4000 development weeks were spent to get to FC• 5100 QA weeks were spent to get to FC• 872 beta customers downloaded and tried it out• 2012 servers, 2277 storage arrays, and 2170 IO devices are already on the
HCL
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Consulting Services: Kit
The vSphere Fundamentals services kit• Includes core services enablement materials for
vSphere Jumpstarts, Upgrades, Converter/P2V and PoCs. • The update reflects what’s new in vSphere 4.1 -
including new resource limits, memory compression, Storage IO Control, vNetwork Traffic Management, and vSphere Active Directory Integration. • The kit is intended for use by PSO Consultants,
TAMs, and SEs to help with delivering services engagements, PoCs, or knowledge transfer sessions with customers. • Located at Partner Central – Services IP Assets
https://na6.salesforce.com/sfc/#version?selectedDocumentId=069800000000SSi
For delivery partner: Please
download this.
© 2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved
Confidential
4.1 New Features: Server
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PXE Boot Retry
Virtual Machine -> Edit Settings -> Options -> Boot Options• Failed Boot Recovery disabled by default• Enable and set the automatically retry boot after X Seconds
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Wide NUMA Support
Wide VM• Wide-VM is defined as a VM that has more vCPUs than the available cores on
a NUMA node. • A 5-vCPU VM in a quad-core server• Only the cores count, and hyperthreading threads don’t
ESX 4.1 scheduler introduces wide-VM NUMA support• Improves memory locality for memory-intensive workloads. • Based on testing with micro benchmarks, the performance benefit can be up
to 11–17%.
How it works• ESX 4.1 allows wide-VMs to take advantage of NUMA management. NUMA
management means that a VM is assigned a home node where memory is allocated and vCPUs are scheduled. By scheduling vCPUs on a NUMA node where memory is allocated, the memory accesses become local, which is faster than remote accesses
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ESXi Enhancements to ESXi. Not applicable to ESX
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Transitioning to ESXi
ESXi is our architecturegoing forward
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Moving toward ESXi
Commands forconfiguration and
diagnostics
Commands forconfiguration and
diagnostics
Management Agents
Hardware Agents
Service Console (COS)
VMware ESXi
CIM API
Agentless vAPI-based
“Classic” VMware ESX
Agentless CIM-based
vCLI, PowerCLI
vSphere APIInfrastructure
Service Agents Native Agents:NTP, Syslog, SNMP
Local Support Console
Permalink to: VMware ESX and ESXi 4.1 Comparison
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Software Inventory - Connected to ESXi/ESX
Enhanced CIM provider now displays great detail on installed software bundles.
Before From vSphere 4.1
Enumerate instance of CIM_SoftwareIdentity
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Software Inventory – Connected to vCenter
•Enhanced CIM provider now displays great detail on installed software bundles.
Before From vSphere 4.1
Enumerate instance of CIM_SoftwareIdentity
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Additional Deployment Option
Boot From SAN• Fully supported in ESXi 4.1• Was only experimentally supported in ESXi 4.0• Boot from SAN supported for FC, iSCSI, and FCoE• ESX and ESXi have different requirement:
iBFT (Boot Firmware Table) required• The host must have an iSCSI boot capable NIC that supports the iSCSI iBFT
format. • iBFT is a method of communicating parameters about the iSCSI boot device
to an OS
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Additional Deployment Option
Scripted Installation• Numerous choices for installation
Installer booted from CD-ROM (default)
Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) ESXi Installation image on
CD-ROM (default), HTTP/S, FTP, NFS Script can be stored and accessed
Within the ESXi Installer ramdisk
On the installation CD-ROM
HTTP / HTTPS, FTP, NFS Config script (“ks.cfg”) can include
Preinstall
Postinstall
First boot
• Cannot use scripted installation to install to a USB device
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PXE Boot
Requirements• PXE-capable NIC.• DHCP Server (IPv4). Use existing one.• Media depot + TFTP server + gPXE
A server hosting the entire content of ESXi media.
Protocal: HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, or NFS server. OS: Windows/Linux server.
Info• We recommend the method that uses gPXE.
If not, you might experience issues while booting the ESXi installer on a heavily loaded Network.• TFTP is a light-weight version of the FTP
service, and is typically used only for network booting systems or loading firmware on network devices such as routers.
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PXE boot
PXE uses DHCP and Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) to bootstrap an OS over network.
How it works• A host makes a DHCP request to configure its NIC. • A host downloads and executes a kernel and support files. PXE booting the
installer provides only the first step to installing ESXi. • To complete the installation, you must provide the contents of the ESXi DVD • Once ESXi installer is booted, it works like a DVD-based installation, except
that the location of the ESXi installation media must be specified.
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Additional Deployment Option
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Sample ks.cfg file
# Accept the EULA (End User Licence Agreement)vmaccepteula
# Set the root password to vmware123rootpw vmware123
# Install the ESXi image from CDROMinstall cdrom
# Auto partition the first disk – if a VMFS exists it will overwrite it.autopart --firstdisk --overwritevmfs
# Create a partition called Foobar# Partition the disk identified with vmhba1:c0:t1:l0 to grow to a maxsize of 4000partition Foobar --ondisk=mpx.vmhba1:C0:T1:L0 --grow –maxsize=4000
# Set up the management network on the vmnic0 using DHCPnetwork –bootproto=dhcp --device=vmnic0 --addvmportgroup=0
%firstboot --level=90.1 --unsupported --interpreter=busybox
# On this first boot, save the current date to a temporary filedate > /tmp/foo
# Mount an nfs share and put it at /vmfs/volumes/wwwesxcfg-nas -add -host 10.20.118.5 -share /var/www www
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Full Support of Tech Support Mode
There you go
2 types• Remote: SSH• Local: Direct Console
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Full Support of Tech Support Mode
Enter to toggle. That’s it!• Disable/Enable
Timeout automatically disables TSM (local and remote)
Running sessions are not terminated.
All commands issued in Tech Support Mode are sent to syslog
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Full Support of Tech Support Mode
Recommended uses• Support, troubleshooting, and break-fix• Scripted deployment preinstall, postinstall, and first boot scripts
Discouraged uses• Any other scripts• Running commands/scripts periodically (cron jobs)• Leaving open for routine access or permanent SSH connection
Admin will benotified when active
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Full Support of Tech Support Mode
We can also enable it via GUI
Can enable in vCenter or DCUI
Enable/Disable
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Security Banner
A message that is displayed on the direct console Welcome screen.
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Total Lockdown
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Total Lockdown
Ability to totally control local access via vCenter• DCUI• Lockdown Mode (disallows all access except root on DCUI)• Tech Support Mode (local and remote)• If all configured, then no local activity possible (except pull the plugs)
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Additional commands in Tech Support Mode
vscsciStats is now available in the console.
Output is raw data for histogram.• Use spreadsheet to plot the histogram
Some use cases:• Identify whether IO are
sequential or random• Optimizing for IO Sizes• Checking for disk mis-alignment• Looking at storage latency in more
details
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Additional commands in Tech Support Mode
Additional commands for troubleshooting• nc (netcat)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netcat
• tcpdump-uw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tcpdump
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More ESXi Services listed
More services are now shown in GUI.• Ease of control
For example, if SSH is not running, you can turn it on from GUI.
ESXi 4.0
ESXi 4.1
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TSM: Advanced troubleshooting (GSS)
DCUI: misconfigs / restart mgmt agents
ESXi Diagnostics and Troubleshooting
ESXiRemote Access
vCenter vCLI
vSphere APIs
• During normal operations: • If things go wrong:
Local Access
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Common Enhancements for both ESX and ESXi
64 bit User World• Running VMs with very large memory footprints implies that we need a large
address space for the VMX. • 32-bit user worlds (VMX32) do not have sufficient address space for VMs
with large memory. 64-bit User worlds overcome this limitation.
NFS• The number of NFS volumes supported is increased from 8 to 64.
Fiber Channel• End-To-End Support for 8 GB (HBA, Switch & Array).
VMFS• Version changed to 3.46. No customer visible changes. Changes related to
algorithms in the vmfs3 driver to handle new VMware APIs for Array Integration (VAAI).
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Common Enhancements for both ESX and ESXi
VMkernel TCP/IP Stack Upgrade• Upgraded to version based on BSD 7.1. • Result: improving FT logging, VMotion and NFS client performance.
Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA)• New naming convention.• New filter plugins to support VAAI (vStorage APIs for Array Integration).• New PSPs (Path Selection Policies) for ALUA arrays.• New PSP from DELL for the EqualLogic arrays.
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USB pass-through New Features for both ESX/ESXi
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USB Devices
2 steps:• Add USB Controller• Add USB Devices
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USB Devices
Only devices listed on the manual is supported.Mostly for ISV licence dongle.A few external USB drives.Limited list of device for now
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Example 1
Source: http://vstorage.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/usb-
passthrough-in-vsphere-4-1/
After vMotion, the VM will be on another (remote) ESXi.Communication inter-ESXi will use Mgmt Network (ESXi has no SC network)
You cannot multi-select devices at this stage – add them one by one.
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Example 1
From the source• “I have tested numerous
brands of USB mass storage devices (Kingston, Sandisk, Lexar, Imation) as well a couple of of security dongles and they all work well.”
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Example 2: adding UPS
Source:
http://vninja.net/virtualization/
using-usb-pass-through-in-vsphere-4-1/
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Example 2
Source:
http://vninja.net/virtualization/
using-usb-pass-through-in-vsphere-4-1/
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USB Devices: Supported Devices
Device Model Device Display Name
SafeNet Sentinel Software Protection Dongle (purple) Rainbow SafeNet Sentinel
SafeNet Sentinel Software Protection SuperPro Dongle (gray) Rainbow USB UltraPro
SecuTech Unikey Software Protection Dongle Future Devices HID UNIKEY
MAI KEYLOK II Software Protection Dongle Microcomputer Applications USB Device
MAI KEYLOK Fortress Software Protection Dongle (Designed for Windows)
Note: it is not designed for Linux systems. If you connect it to Linux systems, the connection resets frequently and can cause unexpected behavior.
Philips KEYLOK Device
Aladdin HASP HL Drive Aladdin Knowledge HASP HL 3.21, Kingston drive
Aladdin HASP HL Basic Software Protection Dongle Aladdin Knowledge HASP HL 3.21
Aladdin HASP HL Pro Software Protection Dongle Aladdin Knowledge HASP HL 3.21
Aladdin HASP HL Max Software Protection Dongle Aladdin Knowledge HASP HL 3.21
Aladdin HASP HL Net Software Protection Dongle Aladdin Knowledge HASP HL 3.21
Aladdin HASP HL NetTime Software Protection Dongle Aladdin Knowledge HASP HL 3.21
Kingston DataTraveler 101 II 4GB Toshiba DT 101 II
Lexar JD FireFly 2GB Lexar Media JD FireFly
Western Digital My Passport Essential 250GB 2.5 HDD Western Digital External
Cables To Go USB 2.0 7-Port Hub Model# 29560 Not applicable
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USB Devices
Up to 20 devices per VM. Up to 20 devices per ESX host.
1 device can only be owned by 1 VM at a given time. No sharing.
Supported• vMotion
Communication via the management network
• DRS
Unsupported• DPM. DPM is not aware of the device and may turn it off. This may cause loss
of data. So disable DRS for this VM so it stays in this host only.• Fault Tolerance
Design consideration• Take note of situation when the ESX host is not available (planned or
unplanned downtime)
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MS AD integration New Features for both ESX/ESXi
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AD Service
Provides authentication for all local services• vSphere Client• Other access based on vSphere API • DCUI• Tech Support Mode (local and remote)
Has nominal AD groups functionality• Members of “ESX Admins” AD group have Administrative privilege• Administrative privilege includes:
Full Administrative role in vSphere Client and vSphere API clients DCUI access Tech Support Mode access (local and remote)
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The Likewise Agent
ESX uses an agent from Likewise to connect to MS AD and to authenticate users with their domain credentials.
The agent integrates with the VMkernel to implement the mapping for applications such as the logon process (/bin/login) which uses a pluggable authentication module (PAM).
As such, the agent acts as an LDAP client for authorization (join domain) and as a Kerberos client for authentication (verify users).• The vMA appliance also uses an agent from Likewise.• ESX and vMA use different versions of the Likewise agent to connect to the
Domain Controller. ESX uses version 5.3 whereas vMA uses version 5.1.
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Joining AD: Step 1
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Joining AD: Step 2
1. Select “AD”
2. Click “Join Domain”
3. Join the domain. Full name.
@123.com
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AD Service
A third method for joining ESX/ESXi hosts and enabling Authentication Services to utilize AD is to configure it through Host Profiles
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AD Likewise Daemons on ESX
• lwiod is the Likewise I/O Manager service - I/O services for communication. Launched from /etc/init.d/lwiod script.
•netlogond is the Likewise Site Affinity service - detects optimal AD domain controller, global catalogue and data caches. Launched from /etc/init.d/netlogond script.
• lsassd is the Likewise Identity & Authentication service. It does authentication, caching and idmap lookups. This daemon depends on the other two daemons running. Launched from /etc/init.d/lsassd script.
root 18015 1 0 Dec08 ? 00:00:00 /sbin/lsassd --start-as-daemon root 31944 1 0 Dec08 ? 00:00:00 /sbin/lwiod --start-as-daemon root 31982 1 0 Dec08 ? 00:00:02 /sbin/netlogond --start-as-daemon
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ESX Firewall Requirements for AD
• Certain ports in SC are automatically opened in the Firewall Configuration to facilitate AD. • Not applicable to ESXi
Before
After
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Time Sync Requirement for AD
Time must be in sync between the ESX/ESXi server and the AD server.
For the Likewise agent to communicate over Kerberos with the domain controller, the clock of the client must be within the domain controller's maximum clock skew, which is 300 seconds, or 5 minutes, by default.
The recommendation would be that they share the same NTP server.
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vSphere Client
Now when assigning permissions to users/groups, the list of users and groups managed by AD can be browsed by selecting the Domain.
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Info in AD
• The host should also be visible on the Domain Controller in the AD Computers objects listing.• Looking at the ESX Computer Properties shows a Name of RHEL (as it the
Service Console on the ESX) & Service pack of ‘Likewise Identity 5.3.0’
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Memory Compression New Features for both ESX/ESXi
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Memory Compression
VMKernel implement a per-VM compression cache to store compressed guest pages. • When a guest page (4 KB page) needs to swapped, VMKernel will first try to compress
the page. If the page can be compressed to 2 KB or less, the page will be stored in the per-VM compression cache. • Otherwise, the page will be swapped out to disk. If a compressed page is again
accessed by the guest, the page will decompressed online.
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Changing the value of cache size
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Virtual Machine Memory Compression
• Virtual Machine -> Resource Allocation• Per-VM statistic showing compressed memory
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Monitoring Compression
3 new counters introduced to monitor• Host level, not VM level.
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Power Management
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Power consumption chart
Per ESX, not per cluster
Need hardware integration.• Difference HW makes have different info
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Performance Graphs – Power Consumption
• We can now track the Power consumption of VMs in real-time Enabled through Software Settings ->Advanced Settings -> Power -> Power.ChargeVMs
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Host power consumption• In some situation, may need to edit /usr/share/sensors/vmware to get
support for the host• Different HW makers have different API.
VM power consumption• Experimental. Off by default
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ESX Features only for ESX (not ESXi)
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ESX: Service Console firewall
Changes in ESX 4.1• ESX 4.1 introduces these additional configuration files located in
/etc/vmware/firewall/chains: usercustom.xml userdefault.xml
Relationship between the 2 files• “user” overwrites.• The default files custom.xml and default.xml are overridden
by usercustom.xml and userdefault.xml.• All configuration is saved in usercustom.xml and userdefault.xml.• Copy the original custom.xml and default.xml files. • Use them as a template for usercustom.xml and userdefault.xml.
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Cluster HA, FT, DRS & DPM
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Availability Feature Summary
HA and DRS Cluster Limitations
High Availability (HA) Diagnostic and Reliability Improvements
FT Enhancements
vMotion Enhancements
• Performance
• Usability
• Enhanced Feature Compatibility
VM-host Affinity (DRS)
DPM Enhancements
Data Recovery Enhancements
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DRS: more HA-awareness
vSphere 4.1 adds logic to prevent imbalance that may not be good from HA point of view.
Example• 20 small VM and 2 very large VM.• 2 ESXi hosts. Same workload with the above 20 collectively.• vSphere 4.0 may put 20 small VM on Host A and 2 very large VM on Host B.• From HA point of view, this may result in risks when Host A fails.• vSphere 4.1 will try to balance the number of VM.
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HA and DRS Cluster Improvements
Increased cluster limitations
• Cluster limits are now unified for HA and DRS clusters
• Increased limits for VMs/host and VMs/cluster
• Cluster limits for HA and DRS:
• 32 hosts/cluster
• 320 VMs/host (regardless of # of hosts/cluster)
• 3000 VMs/cluster
• Note that these limits also apply to post-failover scenarios. Be sure that these limits will not be violated even after the maximum configured number of host failovers.
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HA and DRS Cluster Limit
5-host cluster, tolerate 1 host failure
• vSphere 4.1 supports 320 VMs/host
• Supports 320x5 VMs/cluster? NO
• Cluster can only support 320x4 VMs
5-host cluster, tolerate 2 host failures
• Supports 320x5 VMs/cluster? NO
• Cluster can only support 320x3 VMs
X
X X
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HA Diagnostic and Reliability Improvements
HA Healthcheck Status
• HA provides an ongoing healthcheck facility to ensure that the required cluster configuration is met at all times. Deviations result in an event or alarm on the cluster.
Improved HA-DRS interoperability during HA failover
• DRS will perform vMotion to free up contiguous resources (i.e. on one host) so that HA can place a VM that needs to be restarted
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HA Diagnostic and Reliability Improvements
HA Operational Status• Displays more information about the current HA operational
status, including the specific status and errors for each host in the HA cluster.• It shows if the host is Primary or Secondary!
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HA Operational Status
Just another example
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HA: Application Awareness
Application Monitoring can restart a VM if the heartbeats for an application it is running are not received
Expose APIs for 3rd party app developers
Application Monitoring works much the same way that VM Monitoring: • If the heartbeats for an application are
not received for a specified time via VMware Tools, its VM is restarted.
ESXi 4.0
ESXi 4.1
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Fault Tolerance
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FT Enhancements
FT fully integrated with DRS• DRS load balances FT Primary and
Secondary VMs. EVC required.
Versioning control lifts requirement on ESX build consistency• Primary VM can run on host with a
different build # as Secondary VM.
Events for Primary VM vs. Secondary VM differentiated• Events logged/stored differently.
Resource Pool
DRS
FT PrimaryVM
FT SecondaryVM
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No data-loss Guarantee
vLockStep: 1 CPU step behind
Primary/backup approach• A common approach to implementing fault-tolerant servers is the
primary/backup approach. The execution of a primary server is replicated by a backup server. Given that the primary and backup servers execute identically, the backup server can take over serving client requests without any interruption or loss of state if the primary server fails
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New versioning feature
FT now has a version number to determine compatibility Restriction to have identical ESX build # has been lifted Now FT checks it’s own version number to determine compatibility Future versions might be compatible with older ones, but possibly not vice-versa
Additional information on vSphere Client FT version displayed in host summary tab # of FT enabled VMs displayed there For hosts prior to ESX/ESXi 4.1, this tab
lists the host build number instead.
FT versions included in vm-support output /etc/vmware/ft-vmk-version:product-version = 4.1.0build = 235786ft-version = 2.0.0
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FT logging improvements
• FT traffic was bottlenecked to 2 Gbit/s even on 10 Gbit/s pNICs• Improved by implementing ZeroCopy feature for FT traffic Tx, too
For sending only (Tx) Instead of copying from FT buffer into pNIC/socket buffer just a link to the memory
holding the data is transferred Driver accesses data directly- no copy needed
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FT: unsupported vSphere features
Snapshots.
• Snapshots must be removed or committed before FT can be enabled on a VM. It is not possible to take snapshots of VMs on which FT is enabled.
Storage vMotion.
• Cannot invoke Storage vMotion for FT VM. To migrate the storage, temporarily turn off FT, do Storage vMotion, then turn on FT.
Linked clones.
• Cannot enable FT on a VM that is a linked clone, nor can you create a linked clone from an FT-enabled VM.
Back up.
• Cannot back up an FT VM using VCB, vStorage API for Data Protection, VMware Data Recovery or similar backup products that require the use of a VM snapshot, as performed by ESXi. To back up VM in this manner, first disable FT, then re-enable FT after backup is done.
• Storage array-based snapshots do not affect FT.
Thin Provisioning, NPIV, IPv6, etc
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FT: performance sample
MS Exchange 2007• 1 core handles 2000 Heavy Online user profile• VM CPU utilisation is only 45%. ESX is only 8%
Based on previous “generation”• Xeon 5500, not
5600• vSphere 4.0, not
4.1
Opportunity• Higher uptime for
customer emailsystem
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Integration with HA
Improved FT host management• Move host out of vCenter• DRS able to vMotion
FT VMs• Warning if HA gets
disabled and following operations will be disabled Turn on FT Enable FT Power on a FT VM Test failover Test secondary restart
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VM-to-Host Affinity
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Background
Different servers in a datacenter is a common scenario• Differences by memory size, CPU generation or # or type of pNICs• Best practice up to now
Separate different hosts in different clusters
• Workarounds Creating affinity/ anti-affinity rules Pinning a VM to a single host by disabling DRS on the VM.
• Disadvantage Too expensive as each cluster needed to have HA failover capacity
New feature: DRS Groups• Host and VM groups • Organize ESX hosts and VMs into groups
Similar memory Similar usage profile …
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Rule enforcement: 2 options
• Required: DRS/HA will never violate the rule; event generated if violated manually. Only advised for enforcing host-based licensing of ISV apps.
• Preferential: DRS/HA will violate the rule if necessary for failover or for maintaining availability
Required rules
Preferential rules
VM-host Affinity (DRS)
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Hard Rules
Hard Rules• DRS will follow the hard rules• With DPM hosts will get powered on to follow a rule• If DRS can’t follow,
vCenter will display an alarm• Can not be
overwritten by user• DRS will not generate any recommendations which would violate hard rules
DRS Groups and hard rules with HA• Hosts will be tagged as “incompatible” in case of “Must Not run…” so HA will
take care of these rules, too
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Soft Rules
Soft Rules• DRS will follow a soft rule if possible• Will allow actions
User-initiated DRS-mandatory HA actions
• Rules are applied as long as their application does not impact satisfying current VM cpu or memory demand• DRS will report a warning if the rule isn’t followed• DRS does not produce a move recommendation to follow the rule• Soft VM/host affinity rules are treated by DRS as "reasonable effort"
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Grouping Hosts with different capabilities
DRS Groups Manager• Defines Groups• VM groups• Host groups
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Managing ISV Licensing
Example• Customer has 4-node cluster• Oracle DB and Oracle BEA are charged for every hosts that can run it.
vSphere 4.1 introduces “hard partitioning”• Both DRS and HA will honour this boundary.
DMZ VM Oracle BEA
Rest of VMs Oracle DB
DMZ LANProduction LAN
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Managing ISV Licensing
Hard partitioning• If a host is in a VM-host must affinity rule, they are considered compatible
hosts, all the others are tagged as incompatible hosts. DRS, DPM and HA are unable to place the VMs on incompatible hosts.Due to the incompatible host designation, the mandatory VM-Host is a feature what can be (undeniably) described as hard partioning. You cannot place and run a VM on incompatible host• Oracle has not acknowledged this as hard partitioning.
Sources• http://frankdenneman.nl/2010/07/vm-to-hosts-affinity-rule/• http://www.latogalabs.com/2010/07/vsphere-41-hidden-gem-host-affinity-
rules/
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Example of setting-up: Step 1
In this example, we are adding the “WinXPsp3” VM to the group.
The group name is “Desktop VMs”
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Example of setting-up: Step 2
Just like we can group VM, we can also group ESX
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Example of setting-up: Step 3
We have grouped the VMs in the cluster into 2
We have grouped the ESX in the cluster into 2
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Example of setting-up: Step 4
This is the screen where we do themapping.• VM Group mapped to Host Group
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Example of setting-up: Step 5
Mapping is done.
The Cluster Settings dialog box now display the new rules type.
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HA/ DRS
DRS lists rules• Switch on or off• Expand to display
DRS Groups
Rule details• Rule policy• Involved Groups
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Enhancement for Anti-affinity rules
Now more than 2 VMs in a rule
Each rule can have a couple of VMs• Keep them all
together• Separate them
through cluster For each VM
at least 1 host is needed
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DPM Enhancements
Scheduling DPM
• Turning on/off DPM is now a scheduled task
• DPM can be turned off prior to business hours in anticipation for higher resource demands
Disabling DPM
• It brings hosts out of standby
• Eliminates risk of ESX hosts being stuck in standby mode while DPM is disabled.
• Ensures that when DPM is disabled, all hosts are powered on and ready to accommodate load increases.
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DPM Enhancements
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vMotion
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vMotion Enhancements
• Significantly decreased the overall migration time (time will vary depending on workload)• Increased number of concurrent vMotions:
ESX host: 4 on a 1 Gbps network and 8 on a 10 Gbps network Datastore: 128 (both VMFS and NFS)
• Maintenance mode evacuation time is greatly decreased due to above improvements
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vMotion
Re-write of the previous vMotion code• Sends memory pages bundled together instead of one after the other
Less network/ TCP/IP overhead
• Destination pre-allocates memory pages• Multiple senders/ receivers
Not only a single world responsible for each vMotion thus limit based on host CPU
• Sends list of changed pages instead of bitmaps
Performance improvement• Throughput improved significantly for single vMotion
ESX 3.5 – ~1.0Gbps ESX 4.0 – ~2.6Gbps ESX 4.1 – max 8 Gbps
• Elapsed reduced by 50%+ on 10GigE tests.
Mix of different bandwidth pNICs not supported
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vMotion
Aggressive Resume• Destination VM resumes earlier
Only workload memory pages have been received Remaining pages transferred in background
Disk-Backed Operation• Source host creates a circular buffer file on shared storage• Destination opens this file and reads out of it• Works only on VMFS storage• In case of network failure during transfer vMotion falls back to disk based
transfer Works together with aggressive resume feature above
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Enhanced vMotion Compatibility Improvements
• Preparation for AMD Next Generation without 3DNow!• Future AMD CPUs may not support 3DNow!• To prevent vMotion incompatibilities, a new EVC mode is introduced.
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EVC Improvements
Better handling of powered-on VMs• vCenter server now uses a live VM's CPU feature set to determine if it can be
migrated into an EVC cluster• Previously, it relied on the host's CPU features• A VM could run with a different vCPU than the host it runs on
I.e. if it was initially started on an older ESX host and vMotioned to the current one So the VM is compatible to an older CPU and could possibly be migrated to the EVC
cluster even if the ESX hosts the VM runs on is not compatible
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Enhanced vMotion Compatibility Improvements
Usability Improvements• VM's EVC capability: The VMs tab for hosts and clusters now displays the
EVC mode corresponding to the features used by VMs.
• VM Summary: The Summary tab for a VM lists the EVC mode corresponding to the features used by the VM.
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EVC (3/3)
Earlier Add-Host Error detection• Host-specific incompatibilities are now displayed prior to the Add-Host work-
flow when adding a host into an EVC cluster• Up to now this error occurred after all needed steps were done by the
administrator• Now it’ll warn earlier
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Licencing Host-Affinity, Multi-core VM, Licence Reporting Manager
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Multi-core CPU inside a VM
Click this
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Multi-core CPU inside a VM
2-core, 4-core, 8 core.No 3-core, 5 core, 6 core, etc
Type this manually
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Multi-core CPU inside a VM
How to enable (per VM, not batch)• Turn off VM. Can not be done online.• Click Configuration Parameters• Click Add Row and type cpuid.coresPerSocket in the Name column.• Type a value (2, 4, or 8) in the Value column.
The number of virtual CPUs must be divisible by the number of cores per socket. The coresPerSocket setting must be a power of two.
Notes:• If enabled, CPU Hot Add is disabled
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Multi-core CPU inside a VM
Once enabled, it is not readily shown to administrator
This is not shown easily in the UI. • VM listing in vSphere Client does
not show core
Possible to write scripts• Iterates per VM
Sample tools• CPU-Z• MS SysInternals
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Customers Can Self-Enforce Per VM License Compliance
When customer use more than they bought• Alert by vCenter• But will be able to continue managing additional VMs. So can over use.• Customers are responsible for purchasing additional licenses and any back-
SNS. So Support & Subscription must be back dated. This is consistent with current vSphere pricing.
© 2009 VMware Inc. All rights reserved
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Thank You
I’m sure you are tired too
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Useful references
• http://vsphere-land.com/news/tidbits-on-the-new-vsphere-41-release.html
• http://www.petri.co.il/virtualization.htm
• http://www.petri.co.il/vmware-esxi4-console-secret-commands.htm
• http://www.petri.co.il/vmware-data-recovery-backup-and-restore.htm
• http://www.delltechcenter.com/page/VMware+Tech
• http://www.kendrickcoleman.com/index.php?/Tech-Blog/vm-advanced-iso-free-tools-for-advanced-tasks.html
• http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/1461-Storage-Protocol-Choices-Storage-Best-Practices-for-vSphere.html
• http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2010/07/script-automate-vaai-configurations-in.html
• http://searchvmware.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid179_gci1516821,00.html
• http://vmware-land.com/esxcfg-help.html
• http://virtualizationreview.com/blogs/everyday-virtualization/2010/07/esxi-hosts-ad-integrated-security-gotcha.aspx
• http://www.MS.com/licensing/about-licensing/client-access-license.aspx#tab=2
• http://www.MSvolumelicensing.com/userights/ProductPage.aspx?pid=348
• http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2010/07/vsphere-41-is-gift-that-keeps-on-giving.html
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vSphere Guest API
It provides functions that management agents and other software can use to collect data about the state and performance of a VM. • The API provides fast access to resource management information, without the need for authentication.
The Guest API provides read only‐ access. • You can read data using the API, but you cannot send control commands. To issue control commands, use the
vSphere Web Services SDK. Some information that you can retrieve through the API:• Amount of memory reserved for the VM.• Amount of memory being used by the VM.• Upper limit of memory available to the VM.• Number of memory shares assigned to the VM.• Maximum speed to which the VM’s CPU is limited.• Reserved rate at which the VM is allowed to execute. An idling VM might consume CPU cycles at a much lower
rate.• Number of CPU shares assigned to the VM.• Elapsed time since the VM was last powered on or reset.• CPU time consumed by a particular VM. When combined with other measurements, you can estimate how fast
the VM’s CPUs are running compared to the host CPUs